STARGARD SZCZECINSKI, Poland (Sept. 21, 2007) — Bridgestone Corp. has broken ground on a truck tire plant near Stargard that should be operating by early 2009 and hit 5,000 tires a day at full capacity.
Bridgestone has budgeted $258 million for the project, which it originally announced in June 2006. At full capacity the plant will employ about 750, according to Bridgestone Europe N.V./S.A.
The plant will be Bridgestone's second in Poland—joining the passenger/light truck tire plant in Poznan—and eighth in Europe. Bridgestone also has a passenger tire plant under construction in Tatabanya, Hungary, due on stream later this year or early in 2008.
Originally Bridgestone said it expected to begin construction in the first half of 2007. The plant is being built on a 247-acre site in Stargard Szczecinski, in Zachodniopomorskie province in northwest Poland, near the German border and the Baltic Sea coast.
Takashi Urano, chairman, CEO and president of Bridgestone Europe, said the Stargard plant will be one of the most important plants in the Bridgestone group outside Japan.